Friday, July 2, 2010

Restoring red wolves is a more involved process than simply opening a pen or kennel door and releasing wolves into the natural environment to find food, shelter, and a mate. Because red wolves are wide-ranging and secretive, field biologists with the Red Wolf Recovery Program need to employ various methods and techniques to monitor the wolf population. The primary method used to monitor red wolves is radio telemetry. Without radio telemetry it would be nearly impossible to monitor the location of a wolf, their movements and interactions with other wolves, their home range, territory, and the types of habitat they use, the location of their dens, and their ultimate fate.

But before we can monitor or track red wolves, we must first capture the wolf (see Management Techniques: Trapping and Traps) and fit it with a radio telemetry collar. Each collar emits a pulse signal at a unique radio frequency. When biologists wish to locate a particular wolf, they dial the unique frequency of that wolf’s collar on the telemetry receiver and listen for a signal through a headset. The signal becomes audible when the wolf is within range of the antenna, and stronger when the antenna is pointed in the direction of the wolf.

Radio-tracking wolves on the ground is done using a hand-held or a truck-mounted antenna. Wolves can also be radio-tracked from the air. Attaching radio telemetry antennae to the wings of an airplane allow field biologists to monitor the entire population of red wolves in the recovery area in a shorter period of time than when using ground telemetry alone.

Radio telemetry allows us to remotely monitor the free-ranging red wolves, collect important biological and ecological information on the population, and determine the overall success of the Red Wolf Recovery Program. -- Ryan

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Red Wolf Recovery Program

The red wolf (Canis rufus) is one of the world's most endangered canids. Once common throughout the eastern and southcentral United States, red wolf populations were decimated by the early part of the 20th Century as a result of intensive predator control programs and the degradation and alteration of the species' habitat. The red wolf was designated an endangered species in 1967, and shortly thereafter the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service initiated efforts to conserve the species. Today, more than 100 red wolves roam their native habitats in eastern North Carolina, and nearly 200 red wolves are maintained in captive breeding facilities throughout the United States. To learn more about red wolves, please visit our website at www.fws.gov/redwolf.

[All photos are the property of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and are in the public domain. You are free to use them as you wish - no permission is necessary. However, we ask that you give credit to the photographer and/or the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (example, Photo credit: John Doe/USFWS)].